Scholarly Activities in Hospitality and Tourism Higher Education Among Private Higher Institutions in Australia

: The purpose of this paper is to explore the notion of scholarship and develop research and scholarship strategies among Private Higher Institutions delivering Tourism and Hospitality degree programs in Australia. In doing so, this paper confronts the traditional view of research publications as the only form of scholarship by traditional universities. This paper argues that the purpose of scholarship should be focused towards improving a teacher’s teaching and learning process. This new knowledge need not be limited through peer reviewed journals only, but can be achieved through less formal means of communication such as fieldtrips to industry and attending conferences. This paper utilizes the six Scholarship key points as defined on P. 19 of the National Protocols for Higher Education Approval Processes in Australia by MCEETYA to investigate methods to capture scholarship beyond traditional research publications.


Introduction
The Australian Higher Education Industry is divided into two main categories (Self Accrediting Institutions vs. Non Self Accrediting Institutions). All approved higher education providers are required to undergo a quality audit every five years by the Australian University Quality Agency (AUQA), which was superseded by The Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) in 2011. Self-Accrediting Institutions  being informed about the literature of learning and teaching in relevant disciplines and being committed to ongoing development of teaching practice; and  focusing on the learning outcomes of students. (MCEETYA, 2007, p. 19).
Based on the definitions of research and scholarship provided by the National Protocols, both of these are equally important in increasing the quality of teaching and learning in higher education. Clearly, the notion of what constitutes scholarship in NSAIs remains an area of interest. Therefore, it is important to understand the relevance of scholarship in NSAIs offering Tourism and Hospitality programs, and how academics view scholarship.

Perceptions of Scholarship Among Academics
In general, most academics and institutions only regard traditional research publications as merits of exemplary scholarship (Goh & Ritchie, 2011). The majority of universities in Australia recognize scholarship as peer reviewed research publications and reward their faculty on this criterion. Leading Australian universities, such as the University of Queensland, use a Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) point system as a measure of research output merit. DEST (which is now known as Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations) points are research publication points based on the type of research publication by the faculty member (DEEWR, p. 7). For example, at the University of Queensland (G8 University in Australia), academic staff are awarded 5 DEST points for a book publication and 1 DEST point for refereed publications in A*, A, and B rated journals. Other forms of publications (e.g. professional magazines) and scholarly activities (e.g. fieldtrips) are not recognized as scholarship and do not earn DEST points, which affect the faculty member's chances of promotion. This research point structure is also known as the Higher Education Research Data Collection (HERDC) process, which consists of peer reviewed publications: 1) books (authors / co-authors); 2) book chapters; 3) journal articles; and 4) conference proceedings (Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research, and Tertiary Education [DIISRT], 2012, p.4). This means that any other types of scholarship are perceived as not "true" scholarship and may not gain similar respect and recognition as traditional scholarship (Schroeder, 2007, p. 1). For example, if a lecturer brought students on 10 educational fieldtrips, this would not be seen as true scholarship as compared with publishing one research article. Not surprisingly, most academics would choose the latter as it is more rewarding for their career. Boshier (2009) described the mainstream perception where "scholarship of teaching and learning is dominated by a preoccupation with … peer review and the politics of publishing.... If it gets past peers, it must be scholarship. If rejected, it wasn't scholarship" (p.4).

The Practical Nature of Tourism and Hospitality in Higher Education
Tourism and Hospitality education has been evolving over the last 30 years from a strong vocational foundation to a more academic discipline (Craig-Smith & Ruhanen, 2005;King & Craig-Smith, 2005). In a keynote speech at CAUTHE 2011, Professor John Tribe highlighted the mediocrity in research and teaching in hospitality and emphasized the need to examine new approaches to research and teaching to respond to the evolving education arena. One possible new direction is for academics to shift their strong grounds on traditional scholarship view as solely research publications based. This may not be the most appropriate view for disciplines that are of a practical / applied nature such as Hospitality studies that place stronger emphasis on applied learning in scholarship of teaching and learning. This unique discipline was outlined by Williams (2005) who emphasized that hospitality programs "differ widely and lack the standardization that characterizes many traditional fields of study" (p.71). Other leading researchers (Craig-Smith & Ruhanen, 2005;King & Craig-Smith, 2005) have mentioned that Hospitality education is distinctive due to a wide variety of approaches and philosophies that needs practical skills and experience in addition to the more strategic management elements. This practical element sees the need for academics to ensure that their research and scholarship contributes industry relevance to their teaching and curriculum design (Gursoy & Swanger, 2005). This practical element is recognized at most NSAIs (such as The Blue Mountains International Hotel Management School and William Blue College), where they have training facilities that simulate the real environment in addition to their traditional lecture rooms. Certain traditional universities such as the Hong Kong Poly Uni have developed a commercial five-star hotel on its campus as part of practical delivery for their students. This sees the practical nature of Tourism and Hospitality programs where academics have to place greater emphasis on applied research and scholarship as compared to traditional academic research.

Culture of Scholarship in NSAIs
Most NSAIs comprise of mainly adjunct lecturers who carry out teaching duties who have a cognate higher degree qualification, working in a closely related professional occupation, or may teach across universities and NSAIs. It is expected and explicitly Scholarly activities in hospitality and tourism higher education… 57 required of all full time and adjunct faculty members to undertake scholarly activities to widen their knowledge in their respective disciplines to improve the students' learning experience. Under the National Protocols Guidelines, it clearly states that "Australian universities will meet the following criteria of . . . demonstrating a culture of sustained scholarship which informs teaching and learning in all fields in which courses are offered" (MCEETYA, 2007, p.10). However, most NSAIs have predominately focused their resources on teaching and have given limited consideration for advancement of scholarship and research activities. Not surprisingly, NSAI faculty members who want to participate in scholarly activities are confused as to what constitutes scholarship. To add to this confusion, all NSAIs have their own set of scholarly activities that are recognized and differ from other NSAIs. Therefore, there is a strong need to develop a scholarship handbook for NSAIs to ensure consistency and better comprehension. Given the practicality nature of Tourism and Hospitality education, and unique faculty structures of NSAIs, this paper seeks to explore Boyer's (1990) scholarship model to help explore the notion of scholarship in NSAIs offering Tourism and Hospitality programs.

Boyer's Scholarship Model
In 1990, Boyer proposed that the scholarship of teaching needs to be recognized from all aspects of academic work and not solely from research and publications. Boyer (1990) maintains that his definition of scholarship is for teachers who are "well informed" and who "stimulate active, not passive learning and encourage students to be critical, creative thinkers, with the capacity to go on learning" (p. 24). According to Boyer's (1990) scholarship definition, there are four interrelated and overlapping scholarships.
 Scholarship of discovery -this is often referred to as traditional research by academics and viewed as the "advancement of knowledge" (p. 17).
 Scholarship of integration -this involves putting facts together to come to a new understanding about "making connections across the disciplines, placing the specialties in larger context, illuminating data in a revealing way, often educating non specialists, too" (p. 18).
 Scholarship of application -this is about applying knowledge to solve problems and inform others through the "new intellectual understandings from the very act of application" (p. 23).
 Scholarship of teaching -this is about "transforming and extending knowledge acquired through research, synthesis, practice and teaching" (p. 24).

E. Goh
This scholarship definition has drawn lots of attention among researchers and many have since explored Boyer's (1990) scholarship model to extend the meaning of scholarship of teaching. Rice (1992) used his own three distinct elements to add more weight to Boyer's scholarship model. First, the synoptic capacity to draw information together in such a way that it provides coherence and meaning for connections to be made between the knower and known. Second, the capacity to represent a subject in ways that transcend the split between intellectual substance and teaching process. Third, the capacity for scholarly inquiry into how students "make meaning" out of what the teacher says and does. Besides traditional research, Schon (1995) suggested that a way to acquire new knowledge in teaching is through the practice of teaching as a reflectionin-action. Similarly, these inquiries must be well informed from a position of someone having a pedagogy position of the discipline and needs to be critically reflective. This is very similar to the practical nature of Tourism and Hospitality delivery that requires academics to have a hands-on approach. Cross and Steadman (1996) mentioned the need to highlight the advantages of considering different kinds of academic work as scholarship when using Boyer's scholarship model where academics must emphasize the common features and purpose of scholarship (p.28). Glassick, Huber and Maeroff (1997) argued that all forms of scholarship must be given due recognition if it is performed with distinction. They stressed that excellence must be the only yardstick and identified six key areas as crucial when performing scholarship: have clear goals and knowing the scholarship objectives; have adequate preparation to demonstrate understanding of existing scholarship in the field; able to use appropriate methods to meet objectives; must achieve significant results and outcomes; able to effectively present and communicate the findings; and must reflectively critique his/her own work (p. 36). As can be seen, there is no single exact definition of scholarship but a common theme has emerged, which sees the main goal of scholarship to be focused on improving student learning experiences and outcomes (Kreber, 2003;Nicholls, 2004;Prosser, 2008). In the scholarship process, new knowledge gained from the scholarly activities must improve student learning through the communication of these new findings (Kreber, 2003;Grum, 2008;Trigwell et al., 2000) and need not be done through traditional research and peer reviewed publications (Boyer, 1990).

Methodology and Discussion
The overall aim of this paper was to explore and integrate the Australia National Protocol 2007 on scholarship with Boyer's scholarship model to develop key scholarship activities useful for Tourism and Hospitality Educators. The four proposed scholarship activities were fieldtrips, industry visits, career expos, and attending conferences. The Scholarly activities in hospitality and tourism higher education… 59 rationale for selecting these four scholarly activities was twofold: first, these scholarly activities have been reported to be useful and contribute to the students' learning experience; and second, these scholarly activities are commonly practiced at NSAIs in Tourism and Hospitality programs but have not been given the due recognition as recognized forms of scholarship. Most importantly, the following shows how educators can capture these scholarly activities and ensure that both the National Protocol 2007 scholarship and Boyer's scholarship are addressed.

Fieldtrips
The first common scholarly activity engaged by Tourism and Hospitality educators is through fieldtrips. This scholarly activity is important given that the use of fieldtrips in hospitality education has been reported by several researchers to enhance student learning through experiential learning (Do, 2006;Gretzel et al., 2008;Goh and Ritchie, 2011;Ritchie, 2003;Stainfield, 2000;Weiler & Kalinowski, 1990;Xie, 2004). Fieldtrips are organized excursions involving students and educators in visiting places with the objective of bringing the classroom learning experience to an external environment. On the other hand, fieldtrips also benefit faculty members with valuable professional development experience (Porth, 1997), especially for younger tourism educators (Peace, 2007). As seen in Table 1, it is recommended that educators conduct a literature review on the fieldtrip topic before designing the fieldtrip program as a form of discovery scholarship. This new subject knowledge can be discussed formally or informally with fellow peers to refine the fieldtrip topic. Integration scholarship can also be achieved by presenting post fieldtrip summaries to faculty staff and industry professionals in the form of an oral presentation or circulating handouts. Educators can demonstrate traits of application scholarship by engaging a Question and Answer session before, during and after the fieldtrip for students to apply, reflect, and discuss key concepts related to their practical experience. Lastly, educators can include new knowledge gathered from fieldtrips as possible topics for discussion or assessment to meet student learning outcomes and demonstrate teaching scholarship.

Industry Visits
The main objective of industry visits is for educators to update their knowledge with latest trends and best practices in the commercial environment. This is a form of experiential learning where knowledge is created through the transformation of experience (Kolb, 1984, p. 41 this as a 'reality' approach to touch base with industry needs in ensuring that curriculum designed are industry focused and not based purely on academic myths. Casado (1992) also made the relation between reality and practical significance that can be injected directly into higher education curriculum while working directly with the industry. To capture industry visits as discovery scholarship, it is important that educators conduct extensive review of possible industry partners before embarking on industry visits. This will address the second National Protocol on reviewing literature and new research through secondary research. During this selection process, educators can engage in formal or informal discussions with fellow peers to select potential industry partners and possible industry visit learning objectives. Alternatively, educators can share their industry visit experience through oral communication or summary handouts to faculty members. As seen in Table 2, this is a form of integration scholarship. As part of application scholarship, the educator must reflect on the post industry visit to recommend strategies to improve or solve some of the faculty's problems. Most importantly, the educator must demonstrate teaching scholarship by sharing their industry visit experience with students to add value to their learning outcomes. This can be achieved by examples in their lecture content or a short discussion during tutorials. By doing this, educators are addressing the third, fifth and sixth key points of Scholarship as listed on p. 19 of the National Protocols for Higher Education Approval Processes.

Career Expos
Over the past 10 years, the Association of Australian Hotel Schools has been organizing annual national hospitality careers expo to provide students the opportunity to meet industry representatives. Attending career expos is a good exercise for educators to close the gap between employers' expectations and graduates' employability skills (Lee, Lee, & Gupta, 2009). By attending career expos, educators develop a better understanding on industry needs and use this new knowledge to make suitable changes to the subject's curriculum to ensure that future graduates are equipped with the necessary skills that meet the needs of the industry. This is pointed out by Lefever and Withiam (1998), who strongly emphasized that the hospitality education curriculum should be industry relevant. As seen in which are important motivators for conference attendees. Oppermann and Chon (1997) found these motivational factors encompass personal and professional development, career enhancement, desire to learn, updating information, and keeping up with changes in the profession. Similarly, Yoo and Chon (2008) found that conference attendees are interested in increasing their knowledge by listening to speakers and gathering information that they can use. As can be seen in Table 4, this exposure to new theories and trends to enhance knowledge in relevant fields and can be recognized as discovery research. Newly acquired knowledge must then be shared with colleagues and industry professionals through formal or informal presentations and handouts. This can be seen as integration scholarship. All of this new knowledge must also be applied in the curriculum to reflect necessary changes acquired from the conference; for example, ensuring that assessments are designed to reflect a balanced level of practical elements to address industry needs. Lastly, the educator must demonstrate teaching scholarship by having a discussion session during class to add value to students' learning outcomes and strengthen graduate attributes, which addresses the sixth key point of Scholarship as listed on p. 19 of the National Protocols for Higher Education Approval Processes.

Integration
Demonstrated theoretical underpinnings of current subject knowledge across disciplines.

Integration
Scholarship Key Point 2 Reviewed literature and new research through secondary research.

Discovery
By conducting extensive review of topic before designing fieldtrip program.
You maintain currency of the literature by conducting secondary research about possible fieldtrip topics and industry venues.

Reviewed literature and new research by interaction with peers.
Integration By interacting (formally / informally) with fellow colleagues and peers to select fieldtrip topic.
You discuss with fellow colleagues to brainstorm possible fieldtrip topics and locations.
Integrated literature review and new research to inform learning and teaching.

Teaching
By integrating fieldtrip topic before and after fieldtrip as part of discussion and activities.
You include the fieldtrip experience as a discussion and analysis session in the tutorials after the fieldtrip.
Scholarly activities in hospitality and tourism higher education… 63 Encouraged students to be critical and creative thinkers.

Application
By integrating fieldtrip topic in your discussion with students during lecture.
You include a Q&A session before, during and after fieldtrip for students to reflect and discuss.
Enhanced teaching understanding through interaction with students.

Teaching
By integrating the fieldtrip topic as part of subject assessment.
You include fieldtrip topics as part of marking criteria such as "students must include 3 key success factors from the fieldtrip".
By providing students fieldtrip programs and summary handouts.
You prepare summary handouts about the fieldtrip experience such as "Key pricing strategies of Marriott".

Scholarship Key Point 4
Engaged in relevant professional practice where appropriate to the discipline.

Integration
By inviting industry professionals to the fieldtrip.
By presenting the fieldtrip summary in the form of an oral presentation / handouts.  Encouraged students to be critical and creative thinkers.

Application
By integrating industry visits in your discussion with students during lecture.
You include a Q&A session before, during and after fieldtrip for students to reflect and discuss.
Enhanced teaching understanding through interaction with students.

Teaching
By providing students industry visit summary handouts.
You prepare summary handouts about the industry visit such as "The pricing strategies of Four Seasons".

Scholarship Key Point 4
Engaged in relevant professional practice where appropriate to the discipline.

Integration
By presenting the industry visit summary in the form of an oral presentation / handouts.
You invite other industry professionals to a formal / informal discussion between industry professionals after the industry visit.  Demonstrated intellectual engagement in primary and allied disciplines.

Integration
Demonstrated theoretical underpinnings of current subject knowledge across disciplines.

Integration
Scholarship Key Point 2 Reviewed literature and new research through secondary research.

Discovery
By archiving / creating industry reviews from the expos to enhance knowledge of work in the relevant field.
You maintain currency of the literature as career expo booths will be focusing on latest trends and industry needs / practices at these expos.

Reviewed literature and new research by interaction with peers.
Integration By interacting (formally / informally) with fellow colleagues and peers to discuss industry review ideas.
You discuss and involve fellow peers to complete your research surveys or to informally critique your article before publishing.
Integrated literature review and new research to inform learning and teaching.

Teaching
By integrating your industry reviews and demands in your teaching materials.
You select relevant industry reviews from the expos to include in class activities such as RAVPAR in revenue management.
Scholarly activities in hospitality and tourism higher education… 69 Encouraged students to be critical and creative thinkers.

Application
By integrating the industry reviews / notes from the expo in your discussion with students during lecture.
Enhanced teaching understanding through interaction with students.

Teaching
By integrating the industry reviews / notes from the conference as part of subject assessment. By presenting your industry reviews / notes from the expo to students in the form of an oral presentation / handouts.
You include expo topics for students' assessments such as "assessments must include reviewing the latest technology used in front office".
You provide short handouts from the expo to students.

Scholarship Key Point 4
Engaged in relevant professional practice where appropriate to the discipline.

Integration
By inviting other industry professionals to the expo.
You invite industry professionals to the career expo.
By presenting your industry review / notes to industry professionals in the form of an oral presentation / handouts.  Encouraged students to be critical and creative thinkers.

Application
By integrating the literature reviews / notes from the conference in your discussion with students during lecture.
You include a discussion session during lecture for students on latest trends in the industry.
Enhanced teaching understanding through interaction with students.

Teaching
By integrating your literature reviews / notes from the conference as part of subject assessment. By presenting your literature reviews / notes / findings from the conference to students in the form of an oral presentation / handouts.
You include conference topics for students' assessments such as "assessments must include reviewing the latest trends in the industry".
You provide short handouts from the conferences to students.

Scholarship Key Point 4
Engaged in relevant professional practice where appropriate to the discipline.

Conclusions and Implications
This paper has attempted to integrate Boyer's scholarship and the six key points of Scholarship as listed on p. 19 of the National Protocols for Higher Education Approval Processes as stipulated by the Australian Government. Although the role of scholarship of teaching and learning in higher education is a relatively new idea (Prosser, 2008) and has received limited attention with stiff resistance from most institutions (Schroeder, 2007), this paper has demonstrated that it is possible for academics to achieve true scholarship through careful planning and objectivity. This paper has also highlighted the practical nature of Tourism and Hospitality in NSAIs. The four common scholarly activities engaged by Tourism and Hospitality educators must be recognized by Academic administrators and governing bodies because these activities address the six key points of Scholarship as listed on p. 19 of the National Protocols for Higher Education Approval Processes as stipulated by the Australian Government. This paper acknowledges the importance and strongly encourages hospitality educators to bring to their teaching activities the same critical, doubting, and creative attitude that they adopt in their traditional research publications. By limiting to solely research publications, academics are restricting their discovery scholarship as pointed out by Boyer (1990). This unnecessary restriction omits the scholarship of application, which is important especially within the Tourism and Hospitality discipline (Williams, 2005). Due to the practical nature of this discipline, scholarship must be recognized through fieldtrips, career expos, professional conferences, and industry visits to create a fine balance between practical skills and theoretical knowledge. As demonstrated in tables 1 to 4, these activities if performed correctly, can discover, integrate, apply and teach new knowledge, This paper acknowledges the stiff resistance and politics of publish or perish that has developed and dominated the mainstream academic frequency for decades. This paper is not suggesting substituting traditional research publications but rather a mixed methods approach towards recognizing scholarship to include fieldtrips, career expos, professional conferences and industry visits for Tourism and Hospitality disciplines.
There are several future research directions from here. First, to investigate the effectiveness and adoption of this scholarship handbook among Tourism and Hospitality educators in the NSAI sector. Second, to understand the perceptions of academics within the Tourism and Hospitality disciple about the mixed methods approach towards recognizing scholarship.
Scholarly activities in hospitality and tourism higher education… 75